Centreville Is Ready for a Light Workout

Centreville's football stadium has a scoreboard that cost $80,000. It will update scores from other high school games. (By Joel Richardson -- The Washington Post)

A fan whose favorite professional team is in a playoff chase might do some "scoreboard watching" while at the stadium -- checking the out-of-town scores to see who's winning and who's losing.

A different kind of scoreboard watching goes on at Centreville, which has boasted the largest color scoreboard in the area (about 16 feet high by about 25 feet wide). With all its tricks and graphic capabilities, it has become quite popular with the Wildcats' fans.

"Especially here on a Friday night, it really looks like a little college game, and everyone loves it," Centreville Athletic Director Jimmy Sanabria said.

Robinson and South County have installed similar scoreboards, but Centreville was the first to do so in Northern Virginia.

"They set the precedent more or less for a football scoreboard and full-matrix, full-color display," said Gail Chapman, president of Richmond-based Capitol Athletics, which has supplied Fairfax County schools with scoreboards for almost 20 years. "At the time, they were the only school in Virginia to do that."

"We have the best scoreboard ever," said senior running back Brandon Davis, who as a returning 1,000-yard rusher should see his name and picture up in lights quite often this season at his home field.

Sanabria said the scoreboard cost about $80,000, mostly collected through fundraising. It is now a source of revenue because of all the advertising the school can sell on the message board. As new features this season, Centreville plans to flash scores from other Northern Region games, and also show highlights from the Wildcats' previous outing.

At one point last Thursday night in a home scrimmage against T.C. Williams, an image of James Brown, flanked by an "I Feel Good" message, popped up after the Wildcats made a big play. The 96x40-pixel screen offers 65,000 color variations, Chapman said.

Centreville Coach Mike Skinner likes the scoreboard for one reason in particular.

"We wanted ours to be bigger than Westfield's," he said, in reference to the rival Bulldogs' large black and white scoreboard. "I don't know if it's bigger or not, but we tell everyone it is."

Wildcats senior quarterback Van Chew, a receiver last year, believes the scoreboard might work to his team's advantage when opposing defenders stare into its flashing lights.

"The safeties, when they're facing it . . . I think they get a little bit distracted before the play," Chew said.